UEFA has revealed plans to launch its own OTT streaming service.
In an interview with Spanish website Palco23, UEFA’s marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein revealed the football governing body is looking at developing a platform to give more coverage to areas of the sport that don’t get as much coverage as men’s football.
He stressed there are no plans to take the Champions League and Europa League away from traditional broadcast operators.
“Let’s create our own OTT [platform] to complement pay-TV,” said Epstein. “It is not ready yet, but we are building our own OTT platform to really go beyond the current content.”
“We do not want to compete with TV channels, but to take advantage of the wide range of content we have, such as summaries, delayed games, backstage pictures and futsal, women’s and grassroots competitions, whose broadcasts generally do not have the same visibility as the men’s tournaments. In addition, it would serve to help the 55 federations that are part of UEFA to increase their visibility.”
Epstein suggested the service could complement broadcast TV by offering programming and features to fans who might not be able to watch games on pay-TV.
“The current evolution of our environment tells us that digital platforms are a new place to talk with fans outside the TV viewers, so that the Champions League is not losing popularity because of the migration of broadcasts to pay-TV,” he said.
